Screening newborns for congenital cytomegalovirus infection.

摘要

However, 2 challenges confront universal screening for congenital CMV infection. First, universal screening is only justified when an effective intervention exists that prevents adverse health outcomes, such as averting intellectual disability when infants who lack phenylalanine hy-droxylase initiate a diet low in phenylalanine early in life. At present, no such solution exists for CMV. Although neonatal ganciclovir therapy improves hearing outcomes in some infants,7 the benefits are not universal and the risk/benefit ratio of ganciclovir therapy in infants with silent congenital CMV infection has not been sufficiently well-established to recommend such therapy for all CMV-infected infants. Nonetheless, knowing which infants are infected with CMV has benefit through early identification of infants at risk of CMV-induced hearing loss and may have additional benefits in the future when new and more effective antiviral strategies become available.